President Donald Trump on May 16 unveiled his immigration reform plan that would secure the border, place an emphasis on merit-based migration and limit family chain migration.

These changes are long overdue and come after more than 50 years since immigration has been meaningfully addressed by Congress.

On border security, Trump proposed using customs and border fees to create, in the President’s words, a “permanent and self-sustaining border security trust fund” that in the future could be used to make improvements and expand the wall, without the need for Congress to get involved with annual appropriations.

This would deal with normal wear and tear on border barriers that have gone into disrepair and give an administration the flexibility needed to react quickly when the drug cartels and gangs shift the routes they are pursuing to smuggle heroin and other drugs across the U.S. border.

Trump said, “Everyone agrees that the physical infrastructure on the border and the ports of entry is gravely underfunded and woefully inadequate.”

The President also reported on progress being made to build the wall by the Army Corps of Engineers, saying, “we should have close to 400 miles built by the end of next year, and probably even more than that. It’s going up very rapidly.”

On human trafficking, the President proposed addressing current law and the Flores decision that incentivizes children to be smuggled into the U.S., saying, “Current law and federal court rulings encourage criminal organizations to smuggle children across the border. The tragic result is that 65 percent of all border-crossers this year were either minors or adults traveling with minors. Our plan will change the law to stop the flood of child smuggling and to humanely reunite unaccompanied children with their families back home — and rapidly. “

Trump also promised to rein in bogus asylum claims. According to Justice Department data through 2016, up to 43 percent of asylum seekers depending on the year never make their court appearances after they are released, with tens of thousands simply disappearing into the woodwork every year. In 2016 alone, 34,193 cases were completed in abstentia and ordered to be deported because the alien had not shown up in court.

In addition, only about 10 percent of those whose credible fear claims are initially granted are actually given asylum, according to the White House.

An order from Attorney General William Barr to immigration judges addresses that in part by blocking some of those making asylum claims from being released on bond while their proceedings are ongoing.

Said Trump of the problem, “legitimate asylum seekers are being displaced by those lodging frivolous claims — these are frivolous claims — to gain admission into our country… My plan expedites relief for legitimate asylum seekers by screening out the meritless claims.”

Trump also said that it was time to restrict the family chain migration system and shift towards a merit-based system depending on the economic needs of the nation. Trump noted of the 1.1 million new permanent legal residents admitted every year, “Currently, 66 percent of legal immigrants come here on the basis of random chance. They’re admitted solely because they have a relative in the United States. And it doesn’t really matter who that relative is. Another 21 percent of immigrants are issued either by random lottery, or because they are fortunate enough to be selected for humanitarian relief.”

In other words, about 87 percent of those coming to the U.S. are not based on economic needs but upon familial relations or luck of the draw, and only 12 percent explicitly come for work. Trump proposes increasing work-based immigration from 12 percent to 57 percent and reducing familial immigration to just immediate families and visa lotteries commensurately.

Trump underscored the problem that we are turning away doctors and other highly educated persons because they choose to follow the law, and the law provides no room for them to stay: “Under the senseless rules of the current system, we’re not able to give preference to a doctor, a researcher, a student who graduated number one in his class from the finest colleges in the world — anybody… Some of the most skilled students at our world-class universities are going back home because they have no relatives to sponsor them here in the United States.”

The plan met with support by Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning, who said, “The framework laid out by the President today is a smart way forward and it is important that Democrats support it and securing the border in a humane way, build a merit-based system and move away from family chain migration. Any attempts to add amnesty or other poison pill provisions would be an admission that Democrats are unwilling to work on basic issues of common ground on securing the border, reforming our broken system and treating immigrants humanely.”

In other words, the President’s plan puts America first — and it’s about time.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

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"MOST PEOPLE DO NOT LACK THE STRENGTH, THEY MERELY LACK THE WILL!" (Victor Hugo)

Donald Trump has invigorated the idea of the border wall. Historically, he isn't alone.

On June 23, 2015, Donald Trump announced a crucial detail of his plan for a U.S.-Mexico border wall: he was going to build it (and “very nicely”), but Mexico was going to pay for it.

This wall along the southern border of the United States (will be #10) — which Trump argued will keep the Mexican “rapists” and “criminals” out of the our country — which has since become a key component of Trump’s successful bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump and his supporters aren’t alone in viewing a physical wall as a way to secure a given region — and they never have been. Border walls have composed an integral part of both inter- and intranational relations throughout human history. There is of course the Great Wall of China, which was built to keep out nomadic Mongols.

#1 North Korea

The walls between South and North Korea survive to this day as a physical remnant of the Cold War, which symbolically ended with the fall of yet another wall — the Berlin Wall.

#2 The Berlin Wall

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the world was, on its face, more united. Yet walls continue to divide populations across the globe, and since the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, walls have seen an increase in popularity.

Here are seven border walls you might not know about, and the ways in which they have and — more often than not — haven’t worked.

#3 Spain and Morocco

Contrary to popular belief, Spain doesn’t fit neatly into the Iberian Peninsula alone. Two of its southernmost cities, Ceuta and Melilla, spill into the neighboring north African country of Morocco. In both cities, walls keep African refugees and potential immigrants out of Spain, and therefore out of the European Union.

Spain’s control of these two cities dates back hundreds of years. But it wasn’t until 1995 that Spain built the first modern fence — with funding from the EU –with the specific goal of keeping immigrants out. Support for the wall, as well as its expansion, increased in recent years out of ISIS-related fears.

To an extent, the wall has worked. Fewer migrants make it into Spain and the EU from Africa, but a fair amount still make it in by swimming around the border. Unfortunately, many are also simply killed right there in the water.

#4 Egypt and the Gaza Strip

Thanks at least in part to walls, the Gaza Strip has a severe import problem. Residents find it hard to get the goods they need to survive due to the Israeli wall on its eastern border and accompanying trade embargo.

Gaza’s western side doesn’t fare any better. Tight border barriers have long existed there, particularly at the crossing point at Rafah, but Egypt has recently become more strict about sealing it off. After the Islamist group Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Egypt made their wall even more imposing.

In some ways, these borders compound the problems they were meant to solve — and justify their further use. For instance, some have built tunnels to get goods and weapons into Gaza from Egypt, giving way to a constant and literally explosive battle. In response, Egypt’s government built their latest wall of solid, bomb-proof steel and extended it as much as 100 feet down into the ground to keep smugglers out.

Still, some Egyptians oppose the wall because it can hurt trade. Nevertheless, the Egyptian government, as well as the United States government, supports the wall. As for its effectiveness, the Associated Press reports that within a year of the wall’s construction, it had been breached hundreds of times.

#5 Israel and the West Bank

Still under construction, the wall separating Israel and the West Bank will ultimately be about 440 miles of concrete and barbwire. Since that construction began in 2002, this hotly-contested barrier has been called everything from a security necessity to an “apartheid wall,” depending on who you ask.

Israel unilaterally began construction in order to, it claims, keep Palestinian attackers from entering Israeli territory. However, the wall has since veered into Palestinian territory that doesn’t fall within Israel’s borders, causing many Palestinians to claim that the barrier is a tool used for unlawful annexation.

Indeed, the International Court of Justice at The Hague deemed the wall illegal and called on Israel to take it down in 2004 (the United Nations likewise condemned it by a vote of 150 to 6). Instead, it has spread even further, and reaches heights of 26 feet in some locations.

In making their case for the wall, Israeli wall proponents cite the sizable decreases in violent incidents since the wall has gone up. However, fact checkers have shown that those decreases — sometimes quoted as being larger than 90 percent — are substantially inflated.

#6 Cyprus

Tucked away in the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Turkey, the island of Cyprus is a hotly-disputed territory. In 1974, Turkish forces invaded Cyprus to wrest it from Greek control, and it has remained in political limbo ever since.

A wall separates the northern Turkish side from the Greek southern side, and both countries still lay claim to the island and its land. While the wall has kept the nationally unrecognized Turkish province physically separate, it has caused a political rift that extends beyond Cyprus’ borders.

The EU and the United Nations recognize the island’s south side, while only Turkey can trade with and access the north. This division, and by relation the wall, has played a role in keeping Turkey out of the European Union.

#7 India and Pakistan

India and Pakistan have been fighting since 1947, when British colonial rule ended in the creation of the two countries as we now know them. The countries, which both now have nuclear weapons, continue to be a site of brinkmanship to this day.

Acts of military showmanship along the countries’ many border walls still take place daily, though both networks of tunnels and wall weak points keep these barriers from being fully effective. According to NBC, India has tried to use cameras, camels, and cowbells to make the wall more effective in keeping Pakistani militants out. Nothing has been 100 percent effective, and tensions between the two nations remain high.

In January 2016, the countries suspended peace talks after India blamed Pakistan for letting militants cross the border to attack an air base. In response, India is expanding the wall in Punjab state with laser sensors that will alert security forces of any breaches. The cycle continues.

#8 Border Walls: Belfast, Ireland

For much of the latter half of the 20th century, Northern Ireland tore itself apart. British Protestants, known as Loyalists, and Northern Irish Catholics, known as Nationalists, were consistently at each other’s throats. The former wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK and the latter hoped the area would become part of Ireland.

Starting in the late 1960s, Northern Ireland erected walls in its capital of Belfast in order to curb the violence. Initially meant as a temporary measure, the walls proved effective enough to justify not only keeping them up, but building many more.

To this day, even after the 1998 “Good Friday” Agreement effectively ended the conflict, dozens of walls still stand in Belfast, the Guardian reports, because people are worried about the disruption that taking them down would cause — not to mention the cost.

Yet the walls have proven to be a catch 22. Foreign investment won’t come to Northern Ireland while the walls stay up, but the walls won’t come down until there is enough money and popular support to remove them. That’s not to say that they’re permanent, though: in 2013, Northern Irish leaders pledged to have all the walls down by 2023.

#9 Both Malaysia and Thailand.

Constructed their own walls in the 1970s, largely to decrease the incidence of smuggling and keep communist guerrillas from entering Malaysia through Thailand.

It has since been strengthened, once again in an effort to bar smugglers from bringing in untaxed goods and illegal materials.

But in building two walls, Malaysia and Thailand have created a ten meter-wide middle ground between the two countries, becoming a safe haven for smugglers and drug runners — and helping keep the two countries from building a strong symbiotic relationship.

#10 The United States Wall

We all love wall's - we have walls in our house and outside, for our Prisoners and for Business.

Pretty soon we will have a wall around the USA - make it look like one big detention center with on US personal in it. That sounds really swell.

Everybody needs a wall why is Trump so different wanting one.

Next the Canadian Wall and;

Then The East Coast and West Coast Walls.

We've got walls around jails and prisons.

Let's talk about insecurity - are we there yet - The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave - hmmm.

But let's also not forget where there's walls there are TUNNELS under these walls - if they want to get in or out?

Wall's are not going to stop them.

Boats

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Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.